


Izuku isn't useless

by Riddlersroad (orphan_account)



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Izuku gets bit, Vigilante Midoriya Izuku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 22:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 8,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20749685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Riddlersroad
Summary: Izuku is only in his second year of secondary school when three things happen.1) he is attacked by a sludge villain and told he cant be a hero by All Might2)gets bitten by a quirked insect3)proves All Might wrong (in a way)





	1. Why is it always him?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope u enjoy. I figured it would be more fun if Izuku was younger, so it takes place a year earlier.
> 
> I wanted Izuku to be more like Peter Parker so he's... Honestly he's kinda a geek.
> 
> Not that that's a bad thing, just difficult to write since I'm not very smart myself.
> 
> I kinda mixed up all the spidermans I know of, including movies, games, and comic books I found at the library.
> 
> He's slightly based off a jumping spider, too.
> 
> If you want to know his powers right now, I'll put them at the end notes, or you can discover them with Izuku.

Midoriya Izuku isn’t useless. 

Midoriya Izuku is a ball of sunshine that brightens people’s day. Yeah, okay, he’s quirkless, and his small body is untrained and noodle-like, but that doesn’t mean anything. Plus, in this story, both those problems are easily fixed.

Midoriya is a small boy with green eyes and hair. He tends to stand straight with his arms at his sides, that along with his spiky hair makes him look like broccoli. He’s nearly fourteen now, but remains the smallest in his class at about 5’3. He deals with bullies, biased teachers, and an annoying man who hollars profanities at him on his way home. That last one is easily ignored though. 

He remembers it like it was just yesterday… ‘cause it was.

All Might told him he couldn’t be a hero, Kacchan was attacked by the sludge villain.

_ He ran, as if his feet moved on their own. With one fluid motion, he’d thrown his backpack into the eyes of the villain. It wasn’t much, but it loosened its hold, giving Kacchan the chance to breathe again. Izuku dug and dug at the sludge, but it was like trying to split the red sea. Even so, he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. He grabbed hold of the collar of Kacchan’s shirt instead, pulling as hard as possible. Somehow, miraculously, he managed to pull the boy free and they tumbled onto the cement. _

_ A gust of wind startled Midoriya and he saw All Might standing between them and the villain. The sight of the hero sent a ping of sadness through Izuku’s heart, but he stood anyways. All Might saved them. _

_ All Might saved Kacchan. _

_ All Might was given all the glory while Izuku was lectured by the heroes. _

_ The quirkless runt stood suddenly, interrupting the heroes’ lecture, turning and running away at a speed that made them wonder if he had a quirk afterall. _

_ The boy ran through unfamiliar roads, taking corners he didn’t recognize until he was lost. No hero found him, even if they did look. _

_ All Might never found him. _

Instead of taking the train home after school like he should’ve, Izuku found himself in an abandoned tunnel underground. It was easily accessed but people didn’t go down there often. He’d never admit it, but Izuku loved trying out new art styles. Pencil drawings is good for notebooks, but sometimes it was nice to shake a can and play with the different colors. His favorites to use were reds and blues, but he had black and white along with a green and yellow. His mother had given him some money for more art supplies when he was having a particularly bad week, so now the boy had a gas mask and goggles. He also put his hair up into a black beany to keep paint out of it. By now the beany was a mess of paint and hand prints from him scratching his head through the fabric while he had paint on himself.

He should really find some gloves.

This new area he stood in had walls higher than he thought necessary, but a lot of areas in Japan’s sewers were like that. The light flickered, so Midoriya turned on a headlamp he’d clipped onto his gasmask. It made a small glare that hurt his eyes, but he figured it wouldn’t matter much.

He got to work on his newest creation, working quickly and not waiting for anything to dry. He stepped back when he finished, staring at his newest creation. It was a sloppy mess of red and blue with a touch of yellow at the top and white to replace the skin color. Izuku was usually good at controlling his emotions but, down here, he was alone and crying. He took off his goggles as they fogged. After nearly an hour of painting, he’d created a messy, but recognizable, portrait of the symbol of peace. The hair, the colors… but nothing that would give away the man’s secret. Izuku wasn’t cruel enough to do _ that. _

In a last second decision,, the boy used his green to draw a circle around the portrait, then drew a line through it.

Stepping away from the painting again, he slowly smiled at his work. He mentally deemed it the best of his art so far, even if it wasn’t the most… appealing. No pictures of it would be taken of course, but he did use his paint brush to paint a small, barely visible green “Deku” beside the hair.

A sharp pain in his hand made him yelp and hold it up. Whatever had bitten him was gone, and deku wondered if maybe he had just pinched a nerve or something. Whatever the reason, he decided to leave when he saw a large red and blue spider crawling away from him.

-.-

** _I couldn't figure out how to insert the picture I made so this'll have to do._ **

_ [ALL MIGHT PAINTING](https://www.deviantart.com/jmlemmon/art/All-Might-814542445?ga_submit_new=10%3A1569458751) _


	2. Illness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. There are many environmental elements that affect an individual. Examples of these elements are urbanization, crowding, noise, mass media, technology, and the explosive growth of information.'

Izuku felt ill, but he decided it was best not to tell his mother. As soon as he got home he told his mother he was going to bed. He stumbled into his room, closed the door, and immediately collapsed onto the floor. 

He panted in his sleep and curled up into a ball. He would twist on the floor, writhe and groan in his sleep, but never wake up. His fever raised until it hovered just below deadly, but still he didn’t wake up. In fact, he didn’t wake up at all until the smell of cooking meat made its way into the room. He coughed and gagged, covering his nose and shutting his eyes as everything seemed to brighten around him.

He gasped and began breathing quicker as the room suddenly seemed overwhelmingly bright. The hero merch was to colorful, it hurt his eyes, and the All Might rug had spots where the fibers were going in different directions than the rest of the rug. The ceiling tiles weren't perfectly straight. 

The world was brighter than before.

He found himself curling up on his best, hidden under his blankets and crying. The sounds outside his room were to loud, the smells in the apartment made him gag. But, worst of all, the world was to bright. He could see too much at once.

"Sensory overload,” he muttered to himself. “A condition in which an individual receives an excessive or intolerable amount of sensory stimuli, as in a busy hospital or clinic or an intensive care unit. The effects of sensory overload are similar to those of sensory deprivation, including confusion and hallucinations.”

He stood and stumbled to his backpack, pulling out his goggles and putting them on. When there was still too much he shuffled around in his desk and pulled out some duck tape. On the inside he taped around the corners so that there was only a single, dime sized hole he could look out of. After that, he hurried to the bathroom and stuffed cotton into his nose.

“Mom, I’m not feeling well, I think I should stay home today.” He said just loud enough for his mom to hear before closed himself off in his room.

His mother, Inko, didn’t question him, just stuck a bowl of soup on his desk and felt his forehead. Izuku hated missing school, if he was, there must be something wrong. Sadly, Inko had to go to work, so Izuku was left home alone. 

Slowly, over the course of a few hours, he was able to slowly remove the duck tape from his goggles bit by bit. It wasn’t until noon that he could remove the cotton from his nose, mostly because the lingering smell from breakfast had faded. The bright colors of his hero merch still hurt his eyes, though, and he carefully put all his action figures into shoe boxes in his closet. His posters were carefully taken down and stacked on his dresser upside down.

He sat in his room with his light off, using only slight sunlight escaping his window blinds. He went through his desk then sat down at it, notebook in hand. He had lots of notebook on the small shelf above his computer. They were all labeled Hero Analysis #something except for one. Painting Notes. It was… basically exactly what it sounded like. Notes off the internet, things he’d noticed when he practiced, and answers to the questions he asked graffiti artists on the street. The first thing he needed to learn was how to work on a tighter time schedule. Second, he needed to find a way to light walls up better so he could see the colors perfectly. Maybe a headlamp instead of clipping something to his mask.

He decided to spend some of his art money to buy some pink, next time he’ll try to recreate Midnight and her quirk. He was thinking he could paint an outline in black like a shadow and have her eyes and quirk glow.

Thinking about it more, he realized it probably wasn’t a good idea.

He sighed and stood up, wanting to return to his bed, only to yelp and stumble when his hand stuck to his desk. He grabbed onto his chair to stop his fall, then became increasingly alarmed when his other hand became stuck to the chair. He began pulling, accidentally lifting the desk up off the ground. 

“Haha- what’s happening?” He felt hysteria building. A smile, but teary eyes. He waved the desk around some more, more worried about his hand sticking than the mess he made when things fell off it. “Let go already!”

His hands suddenly stopped sticky, dropping everything to the floor with a loud crash. 

He slowly made his way to his bed and curled up under his sheets. He waited for his breathing to slow and his mind to stop racing.

“I have a quirk,” he whispered to himself. His hands stuck to his shirt and he couldn’t decide what to cry over, the annoyance of tearing his favorite nightshirt, or the fact that he couldn’t fulfill his dream of being a hero. 

Once he was finally able to get some control of his new sticky ability, he hurried to grab some rubber cleaning gloves from the kitchen. His hands didn’t stick through them, so he hurried to grab a new notebook and begin jotting down what he knew.

A had a fever, got sick, and suffered from severe overstimulation. His senses took in too much information and the light of his room was to bright now. Colors made his eyes hurt and without his goggles being taped up he saw more than usual very clearly.

On top of all that, his hands and feet were sticky. He knew the tips of his toes stuck to things now because he accidently got stuck to his rug and dragged it across his room to his desk.

“Spider,” Izuku mumbled to himself, labeling it. He fished a small magnifying glass he usually used when he was tinkering and stared at his fingertips. Small, barbed hairs had grown through the groves of his finger prints, warping them quite a bit. He checked his toes and found the barbed hairs there as well. He decided to slip on thick socks, only to find they didn’t stop his feet from sticking to things. 

For a while he worked on practicing his quirks as much as possible without breaking things or messing up the paint on the walls. He found himself shuffling through his closet and pulling out a microscope his mother bought him. He mostly just wanted to ensure he wasn’t venomous, and was relieved when he wasn’t.

The sudden sound of the front door opening startled Izuku. He was even more surprised when he stared at the mirror on his closet door.

A new entrance made its way into his notebook.

‘Camouflage.’ 

His mother asked through the door to ask if he was hungry but he just replied that he couldn’t eat. A little while later a bowl of soup sat in his room and he found it alluring.

Izuku busied himself with his work long into the night, and found himself missing the sun when it sets.

‘Diurnal.’

Nearing midnight he snuck to the kitchen to find food, but, taking a bite of a stalk of celery, he had to spit it out before he threw up.

‘Change of appetite.’

He could still enjoy chocolate, at least.


	3. Pain in the a$$

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It could be worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT
> 
> in the original draft i had Hitoshi join midoriya but I'm not sure if any of u would like that. 
> 
> i won't post another chapter until at least one person comments about whether they want hitoshi in or out of the story

School was a pain on most days. While Bakugo seemed to be taking a break from bullying, other classmates weren’t so nice to Izuku. One brown haired boy in particular wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Come, you quirkless loser, can’t even speak?” The boy pushed Izuku into the wall.

“Stop that,” Izuku said, grabbing the boy’s fist before it could connect with his face. Izuku twisted it until the bully yelped and tried to pull away.

Nobody bothered Izuku for the rest of the day, but that didn’t mean it got much better. It was still bright, people were to loud, and there were so many things to see and watch that Izuku felt like his skull was splitting in half. The only good thing about being invisible, was that he could slip into a closet and hide at lunch.

Unluckily, Bakugo opened the door to grab something and saw him.

“Deku! You’re- what the fuck are you doing?”

Izuku curled his knees into his chest more and covered his ears.

“Oh, so now you’re ignoring?!” Bakugo grabbed Izuku’s collar and pulled him up. “You little-”

“You’re to loud- it’s too loud- it’s too bright there’s to much-”

Bakugo dropped him to the ground as he wrapped his hands around his head. The boy on the ground kept muttering until Bakugo lost his patience again and knelt down. “What the hell’s wrong with you?! And what’s with these stupid gloves?!”

Before Izuku could clench a fist or move away, Bakugo had yanked off his right glove. 

“Wait, Kacchan!” Izuku used a shelf to pull himself up, only to get stuck to it. He pulled, nearly tripped, and ended up unmounting it. “I need it, give it back!”

The bully dropped the glove in surprise and slowly backed out of the closet until he was out of sight.

After school Izuku was careful to avoid Bakugou, making his way through unfamiliar streets to ensure they didn’t run into each other. He wanted to go to bed, or finish his homework like any other day, but instead he found himself making his way down to the abandoned tunnels.

It was the middle of the day, so it’s not that surprising that somebody saw him enter, but Izuku was just glad he’d already put on his gas mask and beany. His clear goggles were nearly on his head when he heard a voice.

“You shouldn't be down here.”

The tired voice startled the boy to the he nearly dropped his bag. He turned around towards the man, who barely stood out in the shadowy tunnel. 

“S-sorry! I come down here to paint ‘cause I figured nobody would care as much!” Izuku sputtered a few more apologies until the man waved his hand dismissively. 

“Don’t care. I’m a hero, I was chasing a villain last night. I still haven’t found him.”

Izuku internally panicked. What if he’d snuck down here last night like he usually did? Would the villain have killed him? Then a more important question crossed his mind.

“Wait, last night? Aren’t you tired? If you’re lost, I can show the way out.”

There was a long silence before he replied “yes I’m lost,” but Izuku couldn’t help but feel like it was a lie. The hero stepped underneath one of the flickering lights and Izuku recognized him immediately because of the bright yellow goggles he wore.

“Eraserhead!” Izuku gasped. If the hero was surprised, he didn’t show it.

“Not many people know about me.”

“Oh, w-well I love analyzing quirks and your’s was really cool!” Izuku started asking questions while leading the way towards an exit not far from where they were. It was difficult to see since the manhole was in a darker area. Eraserhead ignored the questions more or less, trying not to give anything away. Eventually he took off his goggles and let them hang around his neck.

“I think you’re quirks is one of the m- eh- more powerful types, and, since it’s not physical, you’re made an even better hero because you have to try harder! Would you- um- would you sign my notebook? I won’t tell anybody of-of course-”

“If I sign it will you stop asking me questions?”

“Yes!”

Izuku ripped open his bag and Eraserhead studied what he had inside closely. A couple notebooks, a bunch of paint cans, and a bag of metal gadgets that look finished. The notebook he pulled out, labeled hero analysis #13, was badly burnt and the name at the top was burned off. He handed it and a slightly chewed pen to the hero. The first couple pages acted as a contents, and Eraserhead quickly looked himself up, then Present Mic.

Most of what was down was simple, such as height, quirk, and a few ways they could use their powers more efficiently, but he’d also put down weaknesses and ways to defeat the hero. Eraserhead noticed that for Present Mic, he’d put down that entophobic and his quirk couldn't work through the ground. For Eraserhead himself he’d put that his hair stands on end when he uses his quirk.

“These notes are really extensive,” the hero frowned. He signed the last page against the wall anyways and began flipping pages again. He landed on Midnight, then found Nezu, though that one was mostly blank besides quirk and physicality. Drawings were made of the people, and they were actually pretty impressive. “This notebook says number thirteen… you’ve been doing this long?”

“U-uh yeah. Is anything on your page wrong. I mean if it is- er, you can change stuff but I think I got it all and-” 

“I thought you were gonna stop asking questions?”

“Oh- uh- sorry!”

Midoriya took the notebook eagerly and flipped it to the new signature, which took over half a page. They finally came to a ladder barely lit by the slight sunlight clipping through the holes in the manhole cover. Izuku hurriedly put the notebook back in his back and put it on.

“So, this leads...into an alleyway I believe. I’m not following.”

Eraserhead looked back at Izuku, taking in what looked like uniform pants and the black jacket he wore to hide his uniform. “You’re down here often, right?”

Izuku stiffened. “Uh y-yes. I suppose. Almost everyday after school. Except yesterday, I was… dealing with personal th-things.”

“Have you seen a kid down here recently? He’s taller than you, but about the same age.” 

Izuku shook his head. “I’ve never seen anybody down here, not many people wonder around this area. To smelly, and the lights aren’t very reliable.”

Eraserhead eyed the light clipped to Izuku’s mask and nodded. “Was it you who drew All Might on the wall with a line through it?”

“Y-yeah, I was angry at him. It was pretty mean on me though, wasn’t it… I should wash that off or something.”

Eraserhead’s eyebrows raised slightly in surprise before he composed himself again. “Do what you want, just don’t cause trouble. I don’t want to have to arrest you, kid.”

Izuku smiled, even if Eraser could only tell by the eyes. “Of course, sir!”

The hero sighed as he watched the boy run off back into the dark tunnels. He had wanted to make the kid leave, or return home, but eventually decided against it. The kid looked like a street rat, maybe he didn’t even have a home. But, with the part of a school uniform, at least he was keeping up with his education.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i won't post another chapter until at least one person comments about whether they want hitoshi in or out of the story


	4. Hahahaha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short fun thing

Eraserhead was bothered by the boy he had met underground. This clothes were clean except his hat. He talked too much, but everything he said was factual, and his questions were really interesting. 

_ “If you activate your quirk while looking in the mirror does it cancel your quirk out?” _

Most people’s bodies are immune to their own quirk to some degree- fire users often had a great resistance to heat. Eraserhead grit his teeth and stood from where he was laying on his couch. He shuffled into the bathroom and stared into the mirror. When he activated his quirk, nothing happened. Immune to his own quirk...does that mean he’d be immune to similar quirks? No, probably not.

He wondered about the other heroes in the notebook. It was dangerous if villains got ahold of it. He should've taken it… no, that wouldn't be fair to the kid. Unless the kid was a villain…

“Damn it,” Eraserhead cursed to himself. The kid wasn’t a villain, he was just a brat who decided to vandalize abandoned areas instead of populated ones. Yeah, maybe it was still frowned upon, but it could be worse. The boy could be spray painting genitalia on the side of a bank or something. 

Analysis, that’s what the boy had said. Maybe it wasn’t so much a hobby as a quirk. It’s not unusual for people with intelligence quirks to do weird things to stimulate their minds. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hitoshi will be in the story. Thanks for the comments!


	5. the screams fill the air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku needs a suit

Izuku didn’t know what made him do it. On the way home, gas mask and duck taped goggles still on because his hands still had paint on them and he didn’t want it on his face, he heard a cry for help.

Literally. 

“Help,” somebody screamed. Izuku ran towards the noise, which wasn’t far. A twist, a turn, and he ran into an alley just a building over. A man with spiky black hair to his waist was grinning at a woman, gripping her collar tight. Izuku didn’t want to know what the villain had planned to do, and instead yelled at him.

“Hey!” Izuku called, grabbing the attention of both of them. “What’s your quirk?”

Izuku mentally cursed himself for asking such a stupid question, and he’d already figured out it was probably some sort of physical quirk that had to do with the long hair. The distraction worked as he wanted and the villain let the woman go in exchange of attacking the boy. Izuku felt a tingle in the back of his eyes and dodged an attack by jumping into the air and over the villain. 

“Go call the police!” Izuku yelled at the woman, who frantically nodded and ran off. The tingling in his head caused him to turn towards the villain and he jumped up onto a fire escape as he was charged. A roar of annoyance escaped the villain as he threw small spikes that grew from his hair at Izuku, but the boy merely jumped around. 

Izuku could sense the danger as it came and he noticed the tingle seemed to be on one side more than another sometimes. It told him which way the attack was coming from.

It took a while, but Izuku eventually found a blind spot, darted towards it, and sprayed the villain in the face with green spray paint. The roaring turned to that of pain and Izuku took the chance to punch the villain in the gut.

Apparently, the boy forgot he had a slight strength enhancer.

Seeing as it was technically illegal and Izuku was deathly afraid of disappointing his mother, the boy ran off when he saw a hero running into the alley with the victim trailing behind. He heard the victim shout at the hero.  “No, wait! He saved me, he must just be afraid of being arrested-” Izuku was gone before the hero could get over their hesitation.

\----------

Dagobah beach was overrun with garbage, as usual. Izuku had been coming here since he was young. He’d had an idea when he was seven that he could invent his own quirks. He’d called them Quirk Replacements and they were powerful. To powerful. 

He would only tinker at the beach, but when he accidently blew an area up when he was just over thirteen, he decided to stick to simpler experiments.

Nevertheless, Izuku found himself hoping over pile after pile searching for his little make-shift lab, a small school bus he’d cleared out. It took a while, but he found it. The wheels had long since disappeared, and the engine was missing, but it provided a roof and, in one area, he’d hung a hammock that had since been devoured by moths.

Though it wasn’t the cleanest, his old “chemistry lab” still sat on the table inside. 

He got to work quickly, knowing he’d only have until morning to work. He wasn’t the best with machines, but he loved chemistry. He’d decided if he was going to be a spider, he might as well have webs. 

The creation he stuck to his wrists would shoot a thin, artificial web that was extremely durable. He strung up pieces of trash with varying to see how long they would last. While waiting, he took out a plain white t-shirt from his backpack and a sharpie. He’d bought some hair spray and colored his hair red, though it ended up sticking into clumps of spikes.

“This is a bad idea,” he mumbled to himself as he wrote the word “Spider” on the shirt. It took slightly longer to draw his large, messy spider symbol on it. When he finished with the shirt and put it on, he focused on his mask. It was messy trying to paint on it, but he smiled the entire time he worked. 

After an hour, a loud crash outside the bus startled him.

The fridge he’d had hanging by a couple strings of his web had finally fallen to the ground, causing him to smile again.

Three hundred pounds for an hour? The smaller items were still hanging. As an extra precaution, the webs he made began dissolving into nothing after an hour, it wouldn’t be long before everything else fell.

He suited up, which was mainly just some jeans, his Spider t-shirt, his black sweatshirt unzipped, his duck-taped goggles and mask, and a pair of purple grippy socks he’d “borrowed” from his mother. He’d found that the hairs on his toes didn’t go through the soles of his shoes, but did with these socks. The grippys on the socks could protect his feet a little better than going barefoot. He’d bought some fingerless leather gloves that afternoon too.

“Why am I doing this?” Izuku mumbled to himself as he began hoping over trash heaps away from his lab. In truth, he knew what he was doing. It was morning now, and he needed to return home, but first…

“Alright, okay you can do this!” Izuku said, standing at the edge of a building. He shoots his web across a street and grips in hard, squeezing his eyes shut before stepping into the air.

His screams echoed as he fell, then swung and shot a new web. Soon his fear turned to joy as he practically flew through the air. He took the time to stop whenever he heard screams or cries for help.

  
  



	6. plan for the future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku needs to think

Eraserhead was pissed.

He’d heard the story, or course, about some kid in a gas mask helping a woman after she was attacked by a villain. The problem, though, was that Eraserhead had met the kid (sorta) and had a conversation (though mostly one sided) with him. Now, at three a.m, the hero had called in dozens of arrests and only three of them were his. Hanging from posts, against walls, and even on top of dumpsters were villains trapped in some sort of white spider web. Near or below them was always a messily spray painted symbol of a spider.

Vigilantes were a pain in the ass, especially when Eraserhead had the feeling they were just a kid, maybe in high school. He suspected his height might have to do with his webs. After all, if he’s meant to swing, then a smaller body would be able to maneuver. Maybe he was training to be a hero, maybe he hadn’t been admitted and that’s why he’s a vigilante.

To make matters worse, the vigilante continued every night for over two weeks and Eraserhead noticed there was no pattern to where he was going or which way he was heading. The vigilante was just running around… er, swinging around.

Sometimes during the day the boy would show up to villain attacks that the heroes weren’t prepared for. He usually focused on rescue before stopping the villain, which was good, except for many people were starting to cheer for him more than some  _ actual _ heroes. Eraserhead still couldn’t bring himself to hate the curious, wide-eyes boy who gushed over his erasure quirk.

Still, Eraserhead found himself in the office of Naomasa Tsukauchi, a detective he’d worked with before and actually liked. Not that he’d ever admit it.

“So, you say you’ve met the new vigilante? The Jumping Spider? Or Spiderman?” Apparently they handed decided on a name.

“Yes, he was in the tunnels-” Eraserhead hoped Tsukauchi remembered which tunnels he meant “-with the same outfit besides those socks and gloves. He said he was down there to practice spray painting because he thought, since it was abandoned, he was less likely to upset somebody.”

“And his quirk? Do you know anything about it?”   


“I thought it had something to do with analysis because he had a notebook filled with information about heroes and their quirks, but apparently I was wrong. So far all I know about him is that he has a mutation quirk dubbed spider among his friends and has a bully or abusive family member with some sort of fire or explosion quirk.”

“How do you know?” “His notebook was burned badly, but smelled sweet. Not to mention, he refused to go near that fire villain last week, even though he didn’t have problems with the other two.”

“So you want to help take him in, right?”

Eraserhead nodded down at the file on the desk in front of the detective. It wasn’t much, just random snippets about the fight Spider had won in public. A few pictures from security cameras, media, and one clear, perfect photo of the boy swinging through the air. The most annoying thing about it was how the vigilante smiled with his eyes.

The hero hoped he could protect the child.

\---------

“Mom, I want to get into photography.”

“Again?” Izuku chuckled. He’d been into photography for years until Kacchan destroyed his camera a few months back. That, surprisingly, had been an accident. Kacchan had admitted, though quietly, that he hadn’t meant to break it. He’d used it mostly for keeping track of experiments in his lab and the occasional photo of heroes while he was out. The earlier notebooks in his room had pictures of heroes on each page. Inko had wanted to get him a better but much more expensive camera, but he had told her there wasn’t a point. 

Why buy something if it’s just gonna get destroyed.

Inko had been disappointed, having thought that his photography habit could turn into something he cared more than his hero dream. Izuku wonders sometimes if, maybe, it could’ve been.

“Yeah. I think, maybe, I could make money selling pictures to the newspapers. I’m pretty good, and I think I could convince that new vigilante to sit or another one.”

“Another? What do you mean, another?” She didn’t seem to be alarmed, just confused.

“I met him on my way home from school the other day. He agreed to let me take a picture, so I did. Inko looked worried, then confused, then happy. She was happy. After all, he’s moving away from his hero dream as far as she knew. The press was safer, more or less.  Izuku wondered if, maybe, he should’ve let her know he had a quirk now. 

Inko made an excuse to leave, and Izuku pretended he didn’t know where she was going. 

“A year and a half until the UA Entrance exam. I could try to get into the hero course, but that would likely lead to me being caught. Plus, Bakugo will be there and I’m sure he wouldn’t bat an eye at destroying me. Maybe I could go into the General Ed class… yeah, yeah! That would work. I could learn, find out more about the heroes and how to better avoid them while on patrol, and still be able to learn about heroics! I could always to try to get into the hero course by winning the Sports Festival…” As soon as Inko walked into the kitchen, Izuku looked up at her. “Mom, I want to attend UA in the General Education course.” Inko immediately broke into a giant smile and set a box down on the table in front of him. It was wrapped in a brown paper bag like an attempt to gift wrap. Izuku smile and began ripping the paper off. It was a small, lightweight, forest green camera. He’d heard of this one, it was somewhat expensive but very durable. Waterproof, freezeproof, shockproof, and, most importantly, heat resistant. There was a breaking point, of course, and Izuku knew it wouldn’t last if Bakugo decided to purposely destroy it.  “Mom, go stand in the living room by the landscape picture!”

She did as told as Izuku powered up the camera and stood on the couch to get a better angle. The lighting was good, he would say when she complained, and she would always laugh and look whichever way he said.

After a while, he figured out how to set a timer and set the camera on the back of the couch before running over to stand by her.

_ ‘Click!’  _

He’ll treasure it forever.


	7. the new photographer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku needs to put his new camera to work.

“Hey! Erasure!”

The hero spins around towards the voice with his quirk up just in time for a flash to blind him. He stiffened, blinking away the lights and waiting for an attack, but nothing ever came. Just a laugh fading away as Spider left and something sticky nailing him in the chest. 

It took an hour for Eraserhead to pry off the playing card with a messily drawn spider on it. 

His card was the seven of diamonds. It took the entire weekend, but Spider managed to stick an entire pack of cards on the top 50 heroes and two newer ones.

Eraserhead counted himself lucky that it didn’t get stuck to his forehead like Kumai Woods.

\--------

Izuku was an unappreciated photographer. Then again, he was very new to the business. He didn’t exactly know what he was doing. He just took random photos of villain fights, heroes, a few pop stars (who, by the way, weren’t that popular these days) and walked into the Bugle newspaper. It took some time and he had to open his folder to show the receptionist that he wasn’t wasting the boss’s time. 

“Who is it this time?!” The boss yelled when the receptionist poked her head in to let him know there was somebody there to talk to him. Even though he was outside the room, Izuku coughed at the smell of smoke.

“It’s a kid with pictures. A young photographer.” “We’ve already got photographers!” “Yes, but I think you’d like these ones.”

After a moment of delay, there was a loud sigh and “bring him in then! Don’t leave him sitting in the hallway!”   


Izuku came in, plopped down in a chair across the desk from the large man, and handed the folder over to him. The nametag on his desk wasn’t Japanese. J. Jonah Johnson.

Johnson flipped through photos quickly at first as if he didn’t expect much, then slowed down until he was moving at a snail’s pace. The clear photos always showed the heroes at their best, and the angles were always flattering. If he scaled walls or took the photos from on top of telephone poles, nobody needed to know. A signature was in the corner of each photo to mark it as his work. Deku, written in bright green.

The pros to Izuku choosing the Bugle was simple: they didn’t  _ just _ make a newspaper. The Bugle had a line of magazines that came out every Saturday. It was about heroes and the work they did during the week. That, and they pay photographers scarily well.

“You got a picture of Spider?!”  The con was that Johnson was an avid hater of the newest vigilante named Spider.

“Yeah, I snuck out and sat on a roof until he swung past.”

Izuku decided not to tell Johnson that he had been taking pictures of the vigilante- aka him- for a week now. One of his photos made its way into his casefile.

“Well, kid, consider yourself hired!” Izuku couldn’t help the smile growing on his face. In the end, he earned money with each photo he handed over to the man who hated him.

Only fifteen minutes later Izuku climbed up a building and took photos of a battle between Kumai Woods and a robber. It was strange that a guy would rob a bank in broad daylight around here, but the boy shook it off as the villain just being an idiot.

It didn’t last long, and Izuku had taken a lot of good photos.

“Hey, kid, what’re you doing up here?” Kumai said, making his way up to him.

“My name’s Deku, I’m a photographer for the Bugle! It was really cool how you took that guy down! Would you sign my notebook?” After being stunned into silence, the hero agreed. 

A third signature landed in Izuku’s notebook.

  
  



	8. the Jumping Spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there's a lot of problems, but things get better

Izuku began feeling exhausted after a while of running around as Spider at night, Izuku at school, and Deku during work. He wouldn’t give up, of course, just stop staying out until three. His schedule went something like this:

Wake up at 6:30, get ready for school and get there. School until 3. Sit on a rooftop with a stolen police radio doing homework until a villain fight is called in. Return home at seven, eat dinner, say good night to his mother, then go to bed. Er, pretend to go to bed. Sneak out at nine, go on patrol and take pictures of Spider. Return home at about 1, sleep until 6:30. Repeat until break down.

He was proud of himself, though. His work landed in almost every page of the magazine, and soon some heroes were trying to get ahold of him. Since he’d taken the time to write down in avid detail how well they did in fights and how difficult the enemy was, a lot of heroes were praised for their battles.

His favorite people to write for were the ones that had been around longer. Present Mic didn’t go out much, and rarely worked in the city, but Izuku had fun tracking down his battles whenever there was one.

On the last page of each magazine was an article about the Spider, or Jumping Spider as he was dubbed at the Bugle. 

Two weeks passed before Izuku knew it, and he found himself enjoying the attention. Everybody would ask what his quirk was, and he’d answer by saying he didn’t have one. It made it even more hilarious when he scaled a building with ease to photograph the other heroes.

“Hey, kid, what’re you doing?” A voice said, catching Izuku’s attention. The boy turned and smiled at the hero.

Eraserhead didn’t look the least bit different, probably since he didn’t have to worry about being recognized in his hero getup. Izuku snapped a photo of him. 

“Don’t take pictures of me, kid. What’re you doing up here, it’s dangerous.” Below on the street some heroes were working together to take down a villain. Izuku watched and snapped photos while leaning over the edge. “My name’s Deku! I take photos for the Bugle.” Eraserhead looked surprised for a moment, but quickly controlled his expression. “I work with Present Mic, he’s a bit of a fan of your work.” “Present Mic?! Ohmygoshohmygosh I’m a fan of his too! His quirk, Voice, is really powerful. I even listen to his radio show every friday!”

“Yeah, okay. Be careful when photographing villain fights like these.”

“Yes, of course. What kind of idiot would I be if I wasn’t?” The conversation didn’t last long, but Izuku found himself slightly more confident. Bit by bit, as the heroes began noticing and going out of their way to talk to him after a fight, he grew more and more comfortable with what he was doing. 

\-----

Eraserhead watched Spider carefully.

Instead of being worried, the vigilante was spouting questions about his quirk. Did it work through glass, did it make him immune to other erasure quirks, was it possible to replicate it with chemicals? 

The hero was worried about that last one, but didn’t say a word. 

“There’s nowhere to go, just surrender.” Even as he said it, he knew the kid would never do that. It was one of the things he liked about the problem child; that and the fact that the Spider was never overly violent.

“So, not in the mood to chat?”  The vigilante laughed and suddenly a flash went off, blinding the hero. At first he thought it was a flash grenade, but it had come from the fire escape above him.

By the time Eraserhead could see, the Spider was gone, along with any trace of whatever made the flash.

The hero sighs at the villain Spider had caught before Eraserhead could arrive. He was gagged and stuck to a wall. A half finished spider was painted below him. In the past few weeks it had become a well-known symbol and spread throughout the city. The paint had been changed but, besides that, they couldn’t use it to track down the boy. It was nearly impossible to scrub off now, too.

Any alley with the symbol was avoided like the plague by villains. 


	9. the day is new

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku was feeling lonely, so he made a new friend!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was looking for parasites.

Spider sits on top of the building as the young purple haired boy hurries along. The vigilante can’t tell if he’s running away or towards something. Drugs? Villains? 

Spider follows until the purple haired boy gets jumped. 

“Hey! It’s the brainwasher!” The bullies laugh and knock the purple boy- the brainwasher- to the ground. Spider stiffens. “Come on, villain, whatcha gonna do? Villain! Villain! Villain! They shoulda put you in prison already, monster-”   
  
How childish. Izuku decides to interfere. The bullies stop when a shadow drops between them and the brainwasher. They scramble backwards. The leader takes a moment to recognize the villain, then glares at him.

“You should be facing him, he’s the vill-” He’s cut off with a fist to his nose. He yelps and scrambles backwards, hands already covering in blood as he holds his face. Spider steps forward, ready to go again, but the bullies are already running off.

“Hey, you alright?” The Spider squats beside the purple haired boy, who’s nursing a scraped arm. He has a black eye and an old cut on his lip.

“I’m fine. I need to go.”

“You need help? I can escort you home if you don’t feel safe…”

“Oh, uh…” The boy eventually shrugs and nods, leading the Spider around for a couple blocks. Eventually they stop at a manhole cover and the boy easily lifts it and jumps down into the tunnel.

“Hey uh, can I ask your name?” Spider asks as he continues following the boy, who now has a small flashlight lighting up his way.

“Hitoshi Shinsou, I know who you are. I live this way.”

The boy kept his eyes on the ground, following small and nearly invisible arrows. They were grey and about the size of your pinky. Izuku nearly laughed when they came to an area with lights still up and working (sorta). It was a place he recognized, one he had painted in before.

“Hitoshi, you live in here?” Spider asked as he stepped inside the storage area. On the far wall was the most colorful thing in the room, a messy painting of All Might. A few other paintings decorated the walls, but they were acrylic and not Izuku’s work.

“Yeah. I found that painting and thought it was cool... You can stay if you want.”

Midoriya looked around at the room. No bed, but there was an air mattress and blankets over it. A few small crates supported a couple of old boards as a makeshift table, which was littered with homework and open books. A gas stove sat on the floor near the painting, which probably wasn’t a good idea. The lights overhead flickered, and Izuku figured there probably wasn’t a way to turn them off.

“You know, you can work for me, then I can help you pay for an apartment or something…” Spider glanced down at the homework. It was a normal level for middle school math, but Izuku thought it looked a bit too easy.

“Tell me what you need.”

“Tell me what you can do.”   
  
Hitoshi looked away towards the All Might painting, hesitant. 

“My quirk doesn’t define me… But it’s brainwashing. If I get a verbal response to a question, then I can control somebody.”   
  
Spider immediately pulled his backpack off and hurried to find his notebook, or, at least, a piece of paper to write on. He found a scrap page and pencil quickly.

“Brainwashing? Amazing! Perfect for interrogation, and since a lot of villains like to gloat you could easily subdue them! It’s not physical though, so you have to practice with actual fighting… I sound like a hypocrite haha! Is it just orders, or can you implant things too? Is it one person or can you use it on multiple? Is there a tell to show when you’ve used it on somebody or no? Can you-”

“Could you slow down?” Hitoshi interrupts, scratching his head. “I’ve never tried implanting things, and yeah I can use it on more than one person at once. You can sorta tell when somebody’s under my quirk because they sorta...zone out.” 

Izuku plops down at the makeshift table and began quickly writing things down, asking questions slower and clearer ( _ “Have you ever taken classes to make your voice louder and clearer?” “No.” _ )

“So, are you gonna go into heroics?” Izuku says as he starts sketching something.

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, I’ll try, but I doubt I could get in.”   
  
“You’ll do great… but if you want you could join me! It gets kinda lonely, and it’ll be fun to have a friend for once. And, if at any time you want to quit, I won’t stop you!” Izuku began unbuckling his mask as he spoke, setting it on the table in front of them.

“You… think I can be a good vigilante?”   
  
“If the heroes can’t accept your power, and your morals are strong enough to keep you on the good side, then why not walk the line with me? It’ll be difficult, and I understand if you don’t want to-”

“Alright.”

Izuku didn’t seem to process what Hitoshi said for a moment. “Huh?”

“I said I’ll do it. I’ve been reading about you, keeping track of your stories. You’re the only hero I’ve ever really seen who doesn’t just do things for publicity. If anything, you’re the opposite. You let photos be taken of you but only by that Deku person, right? He gets a lot of money from them, so you’re mostly just helping him out-”

Spider laughs. Hitoshi looks confused.

“I’m, um, I’m Deku. Sorry, really, but I figured I could make some money while also stopping those bad pictures of me people kept putting in the newspapers. Plus, this way, I can be near fights and I get a badge so I can interview heroes.”   
  


“Oh, well, you make a lot of money, huh?”

“Yeah… If you are sure about this, then tomorrow at about five why don’t we meet here then go to the mall. I’ll, uh, color your hair something so that people won’t recognize us or anything.”

“Uh...okay.”    
  
“What color do you want?”

“We could just do mine red too, then pretend to be brothers.”

“That’s a great idea! Okay, but then I’m gonna go in costume and you’ll wear a mask. I could probably get you one tonight since the place I go is always open. You cool with that?”   
  
“Uh… okay… are you sure about this?” 

“Only if you are.” Izuku smiled.

“Alright, it’s just going faster than it probably should.”


	10. Rise of the spiders!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go shopping and annoy the hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apology chapter! (It's short)

Hitoshi wasn’t good at shopping apparently. You could tell when he wanted something because he’d brush his hand over it and purse his lips. He’d just move on, though. Izuku would always take the time to grab some clothes Hitoshi liked and hid them in the pile. One of them was a happy cartoon cat snuggling a star. They wouldn’t be trying on clothes, so they got things in a size that was slightly larger than necessary. They needed plain shirts, jeans, and a couple identical black sweatshirts.

As people walked past, they stared at the two boys with various expressions. Envy, curiosity, disapprovement, and joy. Somebody asked to take a picture with Izuku, and practically jumped for joy when he agreed. 

Hero merch was fun to look through when they found it. Spider had his own t-shirt, sporting a cartoon version of him hanging off a building. Hitoshi grabbed one and laughed at it before putting it in the basket.

Over all, it only took about fifteen minutes to get what they needed and they bought everything quickly. Stuffing some stuff into Izuku’s backpack and the rest into the new black backpack they got Hitoshi, they ran off when the police finally arrived. The poor law enforcement had no chance of catching them when Izuku grabbed onto his friend and webbed the side of a building, swinging them up into the air. 

It was a little more difficult to swing quickly and carefully with the extra weight, especially with Hitoshi screaming into his ear.

\---

Eraserhead wants to punch somebody’s teeth in. Luckily, he’s a hero, which means he gets paid to do that. Unluckily, Eraserhead is unable to move on his own accord to do so. He walks to the police station slowly and robotically, dragging a couple muggers behind him in cocoons of spiderwebs that were also stuck to the hero in multiple places. He racks his mind, trying to remember, or understand, but everytime he tries to remember what happened, his memory would fade away.

As soon as he steps into the building, the spell is broken and he’s left with fury and unshakable confusion. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Spider had something to do with it, and it’s suspected maybe his new partner had some sort of mind control quirk. With nothing known about Spider’s new partner, all they can go with are the security videos from their little shopping trip. Both boys have red hair, new guy loves cat shirts, Spider has a slight limp. As they look over the information for the third time, the hero’s anger has turned into confusion.

“How would they have even met?”

The detective doesn’t know how to answer.

**Author's Note:**

> This'll be a slight spoiler for Izuku's powers.
> 
> If u want to learn them with Izuku skip ahead.
> 
> Strength enhancements, can stick to things, spiderman sense, camouflage, artificially made websites, flexibility, slight regeneration, heightened senses.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.


End file.
